Tripura assembly polls: BJP to field new faces

The BJP will put up 98 per cent new faces and 65 per cent young candidates in next year's assembly elections in Left-ruled Tripura, a top party leader has said.

An 11-hour-long marathon meeting of Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Tripura Pradesh executive committee was held here on Sunday night to finalise the party's strategies before the state assembly elections, due in February next year.

"Tripura BJP President Biplab Kumar Deb told the meeting that the party would nominate 98 per cent new faces and 65 per cent young candidates below 50 years of age in the assembly elections," a party spokesman said on Monday.

Quoting Deb, the spokesman said: "The ruling Left Front has become scared about the rise of the BJP and that's why it unleashed terror tactics by using the administration and police."

Political circles feel that with Deb's declaration about fielding of candidates, the prospect of seven BJP-bound sitting legislators getting party tickets for the assembly polls has become uncertain.

Rebel Congress legislator Ratan Lal Nath and six axed Trinamool Congress MLAs led by Sudip Roy Barman voted for Ram Nath Kovind, the President-elect who was NDA's presidential nominee, in the July 17 presidential election.

All the seven legislators are likely to formally join BJP either by the end of this month or early August, BJP sources said.

Sunday's meeting has decided to reach out to the masses with a message that a regime change in the upcoming assembly elections would improve the socio-economic conditions of the people, who have remained backward during the Left Front's 25-year rule.

BJP General Secretary in-charge of the Northeast region Ajay Jamwal, Assam's BJP leader Phanindra Nath Sharma, state's central observer Sunil Deodhar and state presidents of eight frontal wings (Morcha) also attended the meeting.

--IANS

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